Liz Cheney says the 74m Americans who voted for Donald Trump him were 'misled and betrayed' and that McCarthy and Stefanik are complicit in spreading the 'Big Lie' that Trump won the election

  • Liz Cheney said the 74 million Americans who voted for Trump were 'misled' 
  • 'Those millions of people that you mentioned who supported the president have been misled. They've been betrayed,' she said on Fox News Sunday 
  • She also accused House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy and Rep. Elise Stefanik of being complicit in Trump's lie that he won the 2020 election 
  • 'If they were looking for leaders who would be complicit in spreading the big lie, I wasn't their person, that there were plenty of other people,' she said of the GOP 
  • Cheney also accused Trump of echoing Chinese communists when it comes to democracy, keeping up her criticism of former president
  • She said Trump's false claims the election was rigged is 'the same kinds of things that the Chinese Communist Party says about democracy'
  • Cheney has been on media tour since ousted from GOP leadership last week
  • She also criticized House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy 
  • She said McCarthy, who spoke on the phone with Trump during the January 6th riot, will likely be subpoenaed by the commission studying what happened 
  • 'I would hope he doesn't require a subpoena, but I wouldn't be surprised if he were subpoenaed,' she told ABC's This Week 

Liz Cheney said on Sunday that the 74 million Americans who voted for Donald Trump for president were 'misled' and 'betrayed.'

She also accused House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy and Rep. Elise Stefanik, the woman who replaced her as GOP Conference Chair, of being complicit in Trump's lie that he won the 2020 election.

The Wyoming Republican, who voted for Trump in last year's contest, said she regrets that decision and argued the former president is a 'real danger' to democracy with his false claims of election fraud.

'Former President Trump continues to be a real danger. What he's doing and what he's saying, his claims, his refusal to accept decisions by the courts, his claims continued as recently as yesterday that somehow this election was stolen,' she said on Fox News Sunday.

She told Chris Wallace the Republicans who supported him were misled. 

'Those millions of people that you mentioned who supported the president have been misled. They've been betrayed. And certainly as we see his continued action to attack our democracy, his continued refusal to accept the results of the last election, you see that ongoing danger,' Cheney said.

She also had harsh words for McCarthy and Stefanik. McCarthy supported Stefanik's bid for leadership after it was clear House Republicans wanted Cheney booted out.

Cheney said the two were complicit in Trump's lies.

'They are,' she said. 'I'm not willing to do that.' 

Stefanik, meanwhile, called on Republicans to move on, saying Cheney was too focused on the past.

'She is looking backwards,' Stefanik said Sunday Fox News' Sunday Morning Futures.

'Republicans are looking forward. We are unified. And we are talking about conservative principles. President Trump is an important voice in the Republican Party. We are working as one team.'

Rep. Liz Cheney said told Fox News Sunday that the 74 million Americans who voted for Donald Trump for president were 'misled' and 'betrayed'

Rep. Liz Cheney said told Fox News Sunday that the 74 million Americans who voted for Donald Trump for president were 'misled' and 'betrayed'

House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy
Rep. Elise Stefanik, who replaced Cheney as GOP Conference Chair

Liz Cheney also accused House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy and Rep. Elise Stefanik of being complicit in Trump's lie that he won the 2020 election

Cheney said she regrets voting for Donald Trump in 2020 and called his lies about election fraud a 'danger' to the nation

Cheney said she regrets voting for Donald Trump in 2020 and called his lies about election fraud a 'danger' to the nation

Cheney, meanwhile, also got in another shot at House Republican leadership. 

'What I said in my last remarks to the conference as chairwoman of the conference was that if they were looking for leaders who would be complicit in spreading the big lie, I wasn't their person, that there were plenty of other people who would do that,' she said.

Trump, on Saturday, continued his tirade about his loss last year: 'As our Country is being destroyed, both inside and out, the Presidential Election of 2020 will go down as THE CRIME OF THE CENTURY!,' he said in a statement. 

Many Republicans have embraced Trump, seeing his supporters as their way of taking back control of the House and the Senate in the 2022 midterm election.

But Cheney rejected that argument.  

'We cannot do that if we are embracing the big lie, if we are embracing what former President Trump continues to say on a nearly daily basis, which is claims that the election was stolen, using the same language he used, that he knows provoke violence on January 6th,' she said.

Cheney also accused Trump of echoing Chinese communists when it comes to democracy and predicted the commission examining the January 6 MAGA riot will have to subpoena McCarthy to learn what the former president told him that day.

Cheney, who was ousted from House Republican Leadership last week for her criticism of Trump, has not let up since she was booted out. 

The Republican from Wyoming has been on a media tour since her exile, where she's called for her party to hold Trump accountable for his false claims he won the presidential election and his role in the riot, which left five people dead. She has said repeatedly the former president cannot be elected to another term in 2024 and won't rule out her own bid to stop him.

She took her tough talk a step further in an interview with ABC's This Week, saying Trump's lies about the 2020 election are 'dangerous' and are similar to what Chinese communists say about democracy.

'We have to recognize what it means for the nation to have a former president who has not conceded and who continues to suggest that our electoral system cannot function, cannot do the will of the people,' she said in the interview that aired Sunday.

'To cause that kind of questioning about our process, frankly, it's the same kinds of things that the Chinese Communist Party says about democracy: that it's a failed system, that America is a failed nation,' she added.

'I won't be part of that. And I think it's very important for Republicans who won't be part of that to stand up and speak out.'  

Cheney's words will likely irritate the former president, who had a contentious relationship with China while in the Oval Office and engaged in a trade war with Beijing. 

Rep. Liz Cheney accused Donald Trump of echoing Chinese communists when it comes to democracy, keeping up her criticism of former president

Rep. Liz Cheney accused Donald Trump of echoing Chinese communists when it comes to democracy, keeping up her criticism of former president

She said she believes only a small number of Republicans believe Trump's lie the election was stolen.

'I think it's a relatively small number,' she said on ABC's This Week. 

Cheney also had tough words for House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy, who has embraced Trump as he tries to win back control of the House in the 2022 midterms and take over as speaker. McCarthy supported Stefanik replacing Cheney as GOP Conference Chair. 

She said McCarthy, who spoke on the phone with Trump during the January 6th riot as MAGA supporters stormed the Capitol, will likely be subpoenaed by the commission studying what happened.

She said he should testify. 

'He absolutely should, and I wouldn't be surprised if he were subpoenaed. I think that he very clearly and said publicly that he's got information about the president's state of mind that day,' Cheney said.

'I would hope he doesn't require a subpoena, but I wouldn't be surprised if he were subpoenaed,' she added. 

Rep. Liz Cheney said House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy should testify before the commission studying the January 6th riot and predicted he will likely be subpoenaed

Rep. Liz Cheney said House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy should testify before the commission studying the January 6th riot and predicted he will likely be subpoenaed 

Cheney said the riot, where Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, was the last straw for her

Cheney said the riot, where Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, was the last straw for her

She said, for her, January 6th was the last straw.

'You know, once January 6th happened, that that's the end. And that has been, I think, the most disappointing thing to me, that that more of my colleagues have not been willing to stand up and say that can never happen again,' she said. 

The bipartisan commission will be evenly split between Republican and Democratic lawmakers. It will study the facts and circumstances of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol as well as the influencing factors that may have provoked the riot. 

McCarthy has not signed off on its creation as he is pushing for it to have a broader mandate, including investigating the Black Lives Matters protests that rose across the nation last year after the murder of George Floyd, a black man, by a white cop. The House will vote on the commission next week.

Several Republicans said Trump should have done more to rein in his supporters the day of the riot. McCarthy even called him out on the House floor the day, saying Trump bears responsibility for the event.

Trump erupted in fury. McCarthy flew down to Mar-a-Lago, Trump's residence in Palm Beach, to make peace. 

Many Republicans believe Trump's ardent supporters, who are expected to be a political force in the primary and general election next year, are their way of taking back control of the House. The GOP lost that chamber, the Senate and the White House in the 2020 election. 

Cheney, meanwhile, vowed to do 'whatever it takes' to stop Trump from returning to political power and didn't rule out her own presidential bid in the process. 

'He's unfit,' Cheney told NBC's Savannah Guthrie in an interview that aired Thursday  morning on the Today Show. 'He never again can be anywhere close to the Oval Office.'

Cheney didn't hold back in the blunt, tough talking interview, where she pledged to stay in the Republican Party and to win her own re-election bid next year. She made it clear she intends to a force to be reckon with in the days ahead. 

She has remained defiant after being removed from her Number Three leadership position among House Republicans.

'I'm not leaving the party,' she said.  

Cheney, who hails from a prominent Republican family, said she would do 'whatever it takes' to keep Trump from being president again and from solidifying his control of the Republican Party.

And she would not rule out her own presidential bid in 2024 to keep Trump from winning another term.

'I'm going to do everything that I can both to make sure that that never happens, but also to make sure that the Republican Party gets back to substance and policy,' she said.

Guthrie pressed Cheney three times on a 2024 presidential bid and, each time, Cheney refused to say yes or no to running. 

'I think that it is the most important issue that we are facing right now as a country and we're facing a huge array of issues and so he must not ever again be anywhere close to the Oval Office,' she said of Trump.

'Right now, I am very focused on making sure that our party becomes again a party that stands for truth and stands stands for fundamental principles that are conservative, and mostly stands for the Constitution and I won't let a former president or anybody else unraveling the democracy,' Cheney noted.

Liz Cheney vowed to do 'whatever it takes' to stop Donald Trump and didn't rule out her own presidential bid in the process

Liz Cheney vowed to do 'whatever it takes' to stop Donald Trump and didn't rule out her own presidential bid in the process 

Cheney also said House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy was not 'leading with principle' and that it was 'sad' and 'dangerous

Cheney also said House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy was not 'leading with principle' and that it was 'sad' and 'dangerous

Cheney expressed zero regret for her public challenges to Trump's false claim he won the 2020 election and for her calls that he be held accountable for his role in inciting the January 6th riot on Capitol Hill that left five people dead.

Liz Cheney talks about her parents' influence 

Rep. Liz Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney and Lynne Cheney, said she talks to her father nearly every day. 

'I talked to him every day usually. And, you know, I'm just immensely, immensely proud to be his daughter,' she told NBC's Today Show.

'I learned from him the importance of having the courage of your convictions. I learned from him what it means to stand up for what's right,' she said.

Asked if her dad would be proud of her, she said: 'I know he is.' 

Cheney also downplayed any talk that sexism may have play a role in her ouster from GOP leadership. 

'As women, all of us have an obligation to usually fight harder and work harder and be better, but I don't think that anybody should ever play the victim,' she said.

She said she thought of her mom Lynne Cheney: 'I think about the example of my mother. You know, I was really blessed to grow up in a house where it just never occurred to us, my sister and me, that that you know our gender was any sort of an obstacle to anything.'

Lynne and Dick Cheney with their daughters Mary and Liz

Lynne and Dick Cheney with their daughters Mary and Liz 

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'It's an ongoing threat,' she said. 'So silence is not an option.'

She said she kept up her criticism because Trump was harming American democracy in real time. 

'I think that's a really important thing for people to understand this isn't about looking backwards. This is about the real time current potential damage that he's doing, and he continues to do,' she said.

She wouldn't say whether she thought Trump should be criminally charged for any role in the January 6th insurrection, saying that was up to the Justice Department.  

She said Trump's hold on the Republican Party was 'very dangerous.' 

'I think it's a cult of personality,' she said of Trump. 'And I think people were betrayed and misled by him. It's a real betrayal now that he's willing to try to unravel democracy to get back into power.'

Cheney was also critical of McCarthy, who is working to become the next speaker should Republicans win back control of the House in 2022.

'He is not leading with principle right now. And I think that it's sad and I think it's dangerous,' she said. 

She also denounced McCarthy's decision earlier this year to travel to Palm Beach, Florida, and make peace with Trump after he criticized the former president for his role in the January 6th MAGA riot. 

'Leader McCarthy's visit to the former president at Mar-a-Lago was really stunning. You know, given what the former president did - he's not just former president, you know he provoked an attack on the Capital, an attack on our democracy. And so, I can't understand why you would want to go rehabilitate him,' she said.

Trump gloated over Cheney's ouster from leadership on Wednesday and called for her defeat in the 2022 midterm election. Given that Cheney's homestate of Wyoming is a solid red, Trump and his allies would have to support a primary challenge to her next year.

'Bring it on,' Cheney said in response. She said she was 'absolutely' confident she would win another term in the 2022 election. 

'If they think that they're going to come into Wyoming and make the argument that the people of Wyoming should vote for someone who is loyal to Donald Trump over somebody who's loyal to the Constitution, I welcome that debate,' she said. 

Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., has been one of Cheney's more vocal critics and is expected to play a role in the 2022 primary election in Wyoming. 

She said this was the 'opening salvo' in the battle for the soul of Republican Party. 

'This is the, I think, opening salvo in that battle, and it's a battle we have to win, because it's not just about the Republican Party. It's about the country,' Cheney said on the Today Show.

Rep. Liz Cheney told Donald Trump to 'bring it on' after she was ousted from GOP leadership, making her remarks in an intervie with NBC's Today Show

Rep. Liz Cheney told Donald Trump to 'bring it on' after she was ousted from GOP leadership, making her remarks in an intervie with NBC's Today Show

House Republicans planted themselves firmly in Trump's camp on Wednesday when they removed Cheney from leadership, booing her after she spoke to GOP lawmakers in the closed-door meeting.

It was a yes to remove Cheney and a no to keep her, a GOP lawmaker said of the vote, saying it sounded as if three quarters of Republicans in the room shouted yes. 

Cheney's removal from power was over in less than 15 minutes. 

There was an immediate declaration of war after her ouster, when Cheney told reporters on Capitol Hill: 'I will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office.

'We have seen the danger that he continues to provoke with his language. We have seen his lack of commitment and dedication to the Constitution. And I think it's very important that we make sure whomever we elect, is somebody who will be faithful to the Constitution,' she added. 

Trump celebrated Cheney's fall.

'Liz Cheney is a bitter, horrible human being,' he said in a statement after the vote. 

He called her a shrill for Democrats: 'She is a talking point for Democrats, whether that means the Border, the gas lines, inflation, or destroying our economy. She is a warmonger whose family stupidly pushed us into the never-ending Middle East Disaster, draining our wealth and depleting our Great Military, the worst decision in our Country's history. I look forward to soon watching her as a Paid Contributor on CNN or MSDNC!' 

Trump has not ruled out another residential bid in 2024.